Are you really that scared for your mage?

[Deleted]

Hello.

Reading through all the forums, I see a lot of scepticalism, and well-deserved ofc!
All classes are going through major changes, and it can be a bit intimidating to see your class
being stripped of something, that you saw as iconic for your class.

But the mage is a dps, with not less than three dps specs. Even though a lot of changes are hitting the mage,
don't you guys belive that the mage will always be dominating? Arcane is shit? Go fire/frost. Oh, fire just got nerfed? Frost it is then! etc. etc.

If you had ONE dps spec, I could understand why people are so scared. But you got three choices. Among one of those, is a top-3 spec.

The mage has been strong in every patch, in every expansion. Because of this trinity of destruction.

So all I'm asking is... aren't you guys looking forwards to kick ass yet again, in another world?

[Neichus]

I don't play my Mage as anything more than an alt, but I'm looking forward to WoD for my Mage. Simply, my biggest complaints were addressed:

1) I hated DoTs on my Arcane Mage. I have a S.Priest and Affliction Warlock; if I wanted to DoT everything I'd play those. Being able to get away from them makes me very happy.

2) The level 90 talents. I hated them. I like my Mage more BEFORE hitting level 90, which is just wrong. Trying the new Incanter's Flow on the PTR I enjoy the depth it adds to my rotation. Although after the buff to the radius on Rune of Power in SoO I didn't mind it as much.

So if there are numerical concerns, I'm unaware of them. I don't follow those details for my Mage. I just like the direction they took in WoD with the new talents and changes, and anticipate playing my Mage more come 6.0.

[Deleted]

Yeah the lvl 90 talents in MoP was a big turn off for me as well, and actually the deciding factor for me to not main a mage in that x-pac. Looking forward to WoD, though I whish they would remove RoP aswell

[Novie]

But the mage is a dps, with not less than three dps specs. Even though a lot of changes are hitting the mage,
don't you guys belive that the mage will always be dominating? Arcane is shit? Go fire/frost. Oh, fire just got nerfed? Frost it is then! etc. etc.

If you had ONE dps spec, I could understand why people are so scared. But you got three choices. Among one of those, is a top-3 spec.

This is why I stopped playing my mage. I was tired of having to play a particular spec just to be useful. Fire is where my heart is. I can tolerate Arcane. But I hate Frost with a passion. In seven years, I have never been able to get comfortable playing Frost. There is just something about that spec that isn't comfortable to me. Fire, on the other hand, just seemed to come as naturally to me as breathing. And then they had to go and eff it up to where Fire feels way too clunky.

So, I'm excited to see if the changes in WoD will make me like my mage again. Don't know if it'll be enough to make me main my mage again, though.

[Deleted]

Unfortunately mage has felt very gimped for a long time for me, whilst there are 3 specs, its almost as though you have certain points where you HAVE to play certain specs to actually be invited to groups.

I remember the pain after the HoF nerfs to arcane without frost & fire being strong enough.

As a pure DPS class we do need 1 spec that is viable, but its not just about that, its about quality of life, all 3 specs should be equally viable rather than feeling 2 of the specs have to be ignored consistently.

The last 2 expansions and this one has featured a lot about "We are going to give mages some attention". and it just means "Yes you have a welly and fireballs, thank you for standing in front of us for 3 seconds"

[lunaru]

1 spec will always be better, you can't balance everything

[Deleted]

I am scared for mage as I honestly feel it is a class that is in need of a huge overhaul, and the class has never been overhauled. It is a class of band-aid fixes that are introduced as some sort of 'fixing the class'. It doesn't. Warlocks were in a similar stead, and all three specs feel substantially different now. With mage, they don't feel different. They just feel clunky.

[Auberdeen]

Unfortunately mage has felt very gimped for a long time for me, whilst there are 3 specs, its almost as though you have certain points where you HAVE to play certain specs to actually be invited to groups.

I remember the pain after the HoF nerfs to arcane without frost & fire being strong enough.

As a pure DPS class we do need 1 spec that is viable, but its not just about that, its about quality of life, all 3 specs should be equally viable rather than feeling 2 of the specs have to be ignored consistently.

The last 2 expansions and this one has featured a lot about "We are going to give mages some attention". and it just means "Yes you have a welly and fireballs, thank you for standing in front of us for 3 seconds"

souuuundss... lika l2p issue

[Raugnaut]

1 spec will always be better, you can't balance everything

If you take a look at the delta of all DPS (That is, the average dps of ALL specs), you will see that they are all with ~1% of each other. Now, certainly- the theoritical BiS dps output has a good, large swinging difference in the range of 10%, with an occaisonal outlier. Blizzard does NOT care about the theoritical BiS spec, because it only affects the top .1% of players. Blizzard balances around the average dps output, and the average dps output this expansion has been closer with all specs then it ever has been in the past.

[Balazaar]

Unless you are in a cutting edge guild trying to down heroics (now mythic) as fast as possible just play whatever spec you like. You don't have to be the "best" spec, they all work if played competently. Mechanics are what is really important. You don't need to min/max your mage for every last bit of dps to get a boss down. So what if your dps was a little lower than most others? You got the job done and that is what counts.

[leggomydairy]

I'm not afraid at all. playing mainly fire and frost on both beta and PTR I am in love with frost now. Fire feels relatively the same and I have yet to try arcane

[Deleted]

Well of course there's gonna be 1 best spec. Just like there's gonna be 1 best healing spec. The luxury of having three choices, is that you can always be somewhat competative. You don't like fire, but fire is the best? Don't play it... but you CAN, and will get bigger dps output from it. If you look at a paladin, monk or priest, who all only have one dps spec, it's another world for them. Their dps spec is underperforming? Tough shit, they don't even have the choice of respeccing.

[Daerken]

I'm slightly concerned regarding PvP. Always liked that a mage was specialized in one form but always competent in others, so I don't like how we're now strict fire, frost or arcane with no flavor from other trees. Fire has been a great PvP-spec that a handful really enjoyed and was actually great in the right hands, but it seems like there might just be too much missing for fire to do well in PvP in WoD.

The thing with hybrid classes is that if their one DPS-spec is underperforming they most likely will get a very quick fix, where mages might just have to face reality that the spec you love is now useless and Blizzard doesn't care because you have other DPS-specs.

[Mazaxist]

fire mage in pvp was gutted so badly. i honesltly dont think im gona be doing pvp on my mage anymore. maybe very casual pvp like a random bg once a week or something but thats about it. cone of cold removal pisses me off. why the fuck arcane gets to keep it but not fire??

[Deleted]

Hello.

Arcane is shit? Go fire/frost. Oh, fire just got nerfed? Frost it is then!

Inacceptable, we shouldn't have to put up with THEIR incompetence in balancing specs.

[welcome2life]

I usually place the spec I enjoy and play it well enough that I'm competitive with the group of friends I raid with. It's not about min/maxing sometimes and being viable in high end... it's about having fun with it. xD Maybe this doesn't address the question, but I am not scared for my mage because I have confidence that I will still be able to bring the spec I wish to raid despite any changes that are made.

[zephid]

Well of course there's gonna be 1 best spec. Just like there's gonna be 1 best healing spec. The luxury of having three choices, is that you can always be somewhat competative. You don't like fire, but fire is the best? Don't play it... but you CAN, and will get bigger dps output from it. If you look at a paladin, monk or priest, who all only have one dps spec, it's another world for them. Their dps spec is underperforming? Tough shit, they don't even have the choice of respeccing.

The problem is that you can't just change spec and expect to do better dps than your old one since the specs focus on different stats. BiS fire gear will not be BiS for Arcane or Frost etc.

[voltaa]

Inacceptable, we shouldn't have to put up with THEIR incompetence in balancing specs.

I think you are confusing incompetence with not having thw time or man power to balance 24 specs perfectly. Every change they make to could potentially break 2 other things, multiply that for every dps spec in the game and you'll easily see why they want to focus on having at least 1 usable spec before worrying about having 3. It would be noce to have 3 balanced viable specs, but as someone with realistic expectations of the world around me, I understand why they would prioritize having a working spec for release rather than 3 almost working specs.

Speaking of 3 working specs, right now we are the only pure dps with 3 working viable specs. There's no reason to be worried about mages damage wise right now.

[Deleted]

Speaking of 3 working specs, right now we are the only pure dps with 3 working viable specs.

Not after the latest nerf.

[Violent]

1 spec will always be better, you can't balance everything

I think he means, "if the spec you are starts to suck, don't worry cause mages have 3 specs and there is always one that is good & fun to play."

Could be wrong, but that's how I read it.